NCAA about to rub salt in Penn State’s wounds

July 23, 2012

We awoke early Sunday to images of Joe Paterno's statue being removed by a jackhammer and a forklift, in effect creating his second funeral.

And we awake today fearing there may be yet another death in the Penn State family - this one even more unexpected and one that may take years for the university and the Nittany Nation to recover.

NCAA President Mark Emmert has confirmed that sanctions will be levied against Penn State at a 9 a.m. press conference this morning.

The word "unprecedented" has been included in the advance notice, which means the penalties will be stiff and unforgiving.

Sanctions reportedly will not include a death penalty that would sideline the football team for a season or longer. They reportedly, though, could be as bad or even worse.

If the NCAA allows Penn State to play football but takes it out of bowl consideration for several years, places a TV ban and strips significant scholarship numbers - all of which have been speculated - the university may find itself wishing the punishment would be a one-year death penalty.

We'll have to wait and see, and we won't have to wait long.

This case that culminated with Jerry Sandusky's conviction on 45 counts of sexual abuse against 10 children - and Penn State's decision, according to Louis Freeh's report, to conceal evidence over the years - is so sickening that the NCAA obviously feels it needs to make a statement.

To those who have built their falls around Penn State football and emotionally attached themselves to the Nittany Lions for years, harsh penalties in light of all the suffering that has already taken place is mightily disappointing.

But it's difficult for the NCAA to ban programs for recruiting violations and not take a stand here, much as it will hurt, and even if what transpires will likely add more innocent victims - though not the kind of victims on which Sandusky preyed.

About to pay a price - unfairly - are the current players, many of whom never met Sandusky, the new coaching staff, led by Bill O'Brien, the student body and the entire Penn State community.

Economically, an entire state will share in the suffering.

With the use of the word "unprecedented," it doesn't appear that the firings of Paterno and Graham Spanier, the Freeh report, PSU's $2.5 million donation to child abuse, its pledge toward a new course and now the statue's removal will curry favor with the NCAA.

As sad it was to watch the dismantling of the statue, Penn State President Rodney Erickson obviously had no choice in that it had become a safety hazard, to itself and to the university.

Paterno had become too much of a lightning rod, and the Freeh report that the university had commissioned - though incomplete and an opinion, certainly - included enough testimony to justify Erickson's decision.

With that wound still open, the NCAA is wasting no time in rubbing salt in it, and the pall over State College will continue indefinitely.

Mirror Managing Editor Neil Rudel can be reached at 946-7527 or nrudel@altoonamirror.com. Follow him on Twitter @neilrudel.